JaegerMeister

Rating: 10/10 (31 January 2014)

I Love Guillermo Del Toro. the man has a twisted imagination, he makes some very incredibly scary Monsters. From Mimic to Hellboy II and Pan's Labyrinth, he's been scaring the Bejeezus out of us for over a decade. And we keep coming back for more.
He even had a small hand in the creation of Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" - And in a way I am glad that Guillermo did not direct that, as he said that making Pan's Labyrinth almost killed him, I think The Hobbit would have been too much for him.
But Pacific Rim was not - And he did it, Del Toro did a GOOD JOB on Pacific Rim.
I think what people do not realize is how much of himself Guillermo Del Toro puts into his movies. A Lot of work, and a Lot of Love.
So when I first heard of this movie a few years ago, I was not sure I understood what it was to be about - And I was correct, you cannot easily quantify what kind of Movie Pacific Rim is. Is it a Monster Movie? Yes. Is it a movie about Giant Monsters? Yes. Is it like Robot Jox? YES.
So what we get is a cross between Robot Jox and Robotech - Men Piloting Huge Mechanical Robots, which are Man's Only Tools to fight an enemy which puts man on the scale of an Insect under these enemies' Boots- Er, Claws, Er, Appendages.
And so we get to see the level of destruction from the first frame of this film, and not only the use of Huge Robots, but we are told about "The Drift" - Two Minds merged together through the Machine, two men working as one, Is this a Love Story? In all ways, this is a Love story between Mako (Rinko Kikuchi) and Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam). But it is also a love story between Raleigh and his late brother Yancy (Diego Klattenhoff) - And also between Mako and her Surrogate Father Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba). And between the Father/Son Team of Herc Hansen (Max Martini) and Chuck Hansen (Robert Kazinsky) - And finally even love between the oddest of odd couples ever: Doctors Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) and "Gottleib" (Burn Gorman).
Why? Because all of these people have shared "The Drift" in some form or another.
"The Drift" is not only a technical solution which allows two Pilots to Merge into basically a single Brain, Left and Right hemispheres, for Piloting a Jaeger - It's also a Gimmick created by Guillermo Del Toro to help us understand the relationships between these people.
And this gimmick works better for that than strictly as a means for two Pilots to drive a Jaeger.
Through this Gimmick, we understand Raleigh's loss of Yancy. We understand the antagonism of the two "Scientists" Gottlieb and Geiszler, antagonism peppered with healthy respect. We understand Pentecost's protectiveness over Mako, as we see through her eyes how she perceived her Savior Pentecost when she sees him for the first time as a little girl holding one red shoe.
It is Pentecost's Final Words to Mako which has a bittersweet ring to it: "You can Always Find me, In the drift".
And when he says this, we KNOW, that he is not going to be dead, that he will always be there in Mako's Mind each time she relives that moment where she sees her Knight in Shining Armor arise from the Cockpit of a Jaeger.
It is not just the digital imagery used to portray men fighting huge monsters, Digital Imagery which succeeds rather than fails on all kinds of levels - But it is the Imagery Guillermo has created- This WORLD he created and has given to us, to either live in, and enjoy with him, or to not bother- This fantastic Future Landscape which holds enough Future Shock to kill 1,000 Alvin Toffler's - THIS is what has been given to us with these images- And the way the Digital Images are blended with the practical Film effects, so we do not know where one ends and the other begins.
In fact, one documentary I had read from, describes that the Kaijus were designed as if they were to be like the suits worn by Men in old Godzilla Movies- And in fact the way the Kaijus Move are very much like "Men in Suits" - Only that I have heard Guillermo talking about creating large monsters in other films, particularly in Hellboy - that he animated the "Sammael" daemons so that the movements were more like Animal Movements- He did MUCH the same here with the Kaiju Movements.
But I am glad I bothered to watch this film - It has taken me a whole month to think about how I would write this review. It is because of the deep Humanity which this story shows us, love and respect, that I choose to respect it's director for.
Because on top of all of these deep Human and Spiritual aspects of this story, Guillermo has given us a nonstop event filled with action, and when the Pilots get into their Jaegers, we get into the cockpit alongside them. And when Raleigh falls into the Rift with the carcass of the first Category-Five Kaiju, we fall down that rabbit hole with them, and when we see the Leader of the Invading Aliens, and the FEAR in his three or four Eyes, we can REALLY see that fear, and this makes that moment much more satisfying for us as viewers and participators in the story.
Guillermo Del Toro is much different than other directors of today. Even here we can see his earlier efforts as influences - And one thing I know that Guillermo always carries around is his Notebook.
Thank you Guillermo, and I'm still waiting for Hellboy Three!